## **Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2023 - 31 March 2024** ## **Reference and Administrative details** Name of Charity: Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust Charity No: 1196905 Principal address: Ty'r Ehedydd, Abbeycwmhir, Powys LD1 6PL ## **Current Trustees:** Roger Coward Julian Lovell - Secretary Jackie Marriott - Treasurer & Membership Secretary Sian Meredudd Mel Walters Phil Olivant Angela Swindell (appointed as a Trustee 30 March 2024) ## **Past Trustees:** John Hughes (resigned as a Trustee 31 March 2024) The report of achievements and performance below covers the 12 month period from April 2023 to March 2024. ## **Objectives and Activities** The Trust’s Object is to advance the education of the public in the preservation and the historical and cultural importance of Cwmhir Abbey through the provision of information, events, research and continued learning. The Trust carries out a range of activities, many of which are focussed on Community Heritage under the project ‘Demystifying the Abbey’. Our activities include: - Assistance to Cadw in the content of the Exhibition Room at the Abbey ruins. - Hosting a series of on-line talks that are open to the public 1 **Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2023 - 31 March 2024** - Providing a public facing newsletter summarising the Trust’s research and community activities - Offering the opportunity for volunteers to become involved in research activities associated with the Trust’s aims. This includes both desk based research and field based activities - Provision of training events associated with the Trust’s research - An annual memorial service for Llywelyn ap Gruffydd - Maintaining our on-line presence through a website and social media The Trust is extremely grateful for the substantial support provided by many volunteers. None of the activities above would be possible without their contribution. We are also most grateful to the Hamer family for allowing public access to the abbey ruins. Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust can confirm that they have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit. ## **Achievements and Performance** The Trust has installed two new display boards at the Exhibition Room and the Abbey ruins and the new facilities were officially opened by Will Davies of Cadw in October 2023. The Trust’s relationship with Prof Austin remains strong and productive. Our ongoing research will lead to the preparation of a book on Cwmhir Abbey within the series ‘Strata Florida Books’ https://www.facebook.com/YstradFflur/posts/3089811434576204/ . Prof Austin continues to support us with our research and our team have had a number of meetings with him during the period. As part of our research, Julian Ravest continues to conduct drone photogrammetry of a number of sites of interest to us. We continue to have meetings of our Research Discussion Group by zoom and recordings of these discussions are placed on our website and made available to the public. The Research Group have also had the opportunity to hold Q&A discussions with Dr David Stephenson. Members of the team visited Tintern Abbey in November, and Will Davies of Cadw hosted the visit to the restoration and excavation works on-going there. In 2023 we continued archaeological excavations at Cwmffwrn Farm in the Abbey Home Grange. Our public excavation on 24/25[th] June 2023 was attended by a total of 29 people and supervised by Trysor Archaeological Services. It was supported by a grant from Local 2 **Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2023 - 31 March 2024** Giving. Cwmffwrn Farm is owned by Angela and Ian Lewis and we thank them for their interest in our research and their permission for us to survey and excavate on their farm. We have subsequently been awarded a grant by PAVO from the Levelling Up fund that will enable further excavations at Cwmffwrn Farm in 2024. We were awarded a grant from Catalyst Cymru that enabled our team to receive training from professional archaeologists in the recording and archiving of excavation information. This training was delivered by Trysor Archaeological Services on 29[th] November 2023. We hosted 4 on-line talks during the period: - 28th September 2023 _Piety and Peril: medieval monastic foundation and consequent violence_ by Dr David Stephenson - 2nd November 2023 _Creature Comforts in Medieval Mid-_ Wales by Prof Marged Haycock - 7th December 2023 _Pilgrimage in Wales: then and_ now by Prof Madeleine Gray - 21st March 2024 _Chronicles and Capitals: the cultural impact of Welsh Border Cistercians - Cwmhir, Strata Marcella, Valle Crucis and Llanllugan_ by Amy Reynolds In addition Sorcha Lewis gave a talk at our AGM on 13[th] May 2023 entitled: _Through the generations: a story of High Nature Value traditional farming systems; connecting history, community and biodiversity through time._ We are most grateful to our speakers for the time and contribution that they have made to the Trust. Recordings of these talks have been placed on Youtube with links from our website. The Trust uses the eventbrite.com donation method to manage the ticketing process for non-members access to on-line talks. The donation approach has resulted in £882.44 donations made towards the Trust’s heritage research fund over the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. We are members of Council for British Archaeology (CBA) Wales and we hosted a successful CBA Wales public meeting in June 2023 at Abbeycwmhir. A number of our research team gave short talks at the meeting and Julian Lovell gave a tour of the abbey. 3 **Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2023 - 31 March 2024** We offer bespoke tours of the abbey and village, advertised through our website. The groups donate to our heritage research fund. These tours are proving very successful and this year a tour has been conducted for the Cambrian Mountains Society. The heritage walks that were created by a grant from Cadw and National Lottery Heritage Fund in 2020/1 continue to be popular, with route descriptions provided on our website, in the Exhibition Room at the Abbey, on the village notice board and at some local B&Bs. A public facing newsletter describing some of the Trust’s activities was prepared in Summer 2023 with copies made available in the Exhibition Room, the village and on our website. We had the opportunity to provide a display of material related to the Abbey and the Trust at - Elan Links Festival of Archaeology on 29/30[th] July 2023 - CPAT/CBA Wales event 11[th] November 2023 We are also working with CARAD museum in Rhayader to create a display related to the Abbey there. Our website www.abbeycwmhir.org has continued to develop over the period. Our thanks are given to Julian and Naisi Ravest who manage the hosting of the website and have designed its overall structure. We also have a facebook and instagram presence and we advertise our activities on these platforms too. ## Links to Other Organisations We give our thanks to Catalyst Cyrmu and PAVO. Catalyst Cyrmu have provided our Trustees with training opportunities that have been invaluable to help us run the Trust appropriately. PAVO have also been at hand to provide advice and practical support. We have many links with the Radnorshire Society and we would particularly like to acknowledge the importance of their library resource. During the period various papers have been submitted to a range of journals based upon our research. These are: We have submitted information on various sites at Cwmffwrn to Archaeology in Wales, for inclusion in their Gazetteer. Lovell, J..“ _The Evolution of the Cwmhir Abbey Estates Post-Monastic Land Ownership”_ Radnorshire Society Transactions 2023 4 **Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2023 - 31 March 2024** Ravest, J. _“The 1200 Mortimer charter to Abbey Cwmhir revisited”_ Radnorshire Society Transactions 2023 Ravest, J. _“Survey of the Cistercian Grange Centre, Mynachdy Moat”_ Archaeology in Wales 2022 Swindell, A. _“Dolhelfa: Continuity and Change in the area occupied by a former grange of Abbey Cwmhir”_ Radnorshire Society Transactions 2023 Our Cwmhir walk was also featured in The Times on 26[th] August 2023. ## Summary of the main benefits derived from the Trust’s activities over this reporting period Our beneficiaries are: - Our local community in Abbeycwmhir and nearby - Visitors to Abbeycwmhir - People who are interested in landscape and heritage in mid-Wales - People who are interested in Welsh history The key benefits that we have achieved over the period April 2023 - March 2024 are: - An enhanced experience for walkers in the area of Abbeycwmhir. - An enhanced experience for visitors to the Abbey ruins and the Exhibition Room and thereby, a benefit to local tourism. - Training opportunities for our volunteers and the public related to understanding our landscape and its heritage. - Information provided in a varied and engaging manner to enhance people’s understanding of the heritage of mid-Wales and Cwmhir Abbey and its granges. - Opportunities for social interaction in a fun and engaging manner. ## **Financial Review** The fund’s held by Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust as of 31 March 2024 are as follows: |Main Account:|£4,306.90| |---|---| |Deposit Account:|£6,077.28| |Petty Cash:|£ 76.47| |Total Funds Available:|**£10,460.65**| For more detailed information on Income and Expenditure please refer to the Financial Accounts, sent separately, for the period ending 31 March 2024. 5 **Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2023 - 31 March 2024** We hold our deposit account in reserve to enable cash flow ahead of grant income. Within our main account we hold £3,713 for our research activities. Our principal source of funds are grants, donations and membership as detailed in the attached accounts. Assets held by the Trust as at the end of this financial year total £16,742.86, which have accumulated over several years. The majority of these assets have been purchased during 2020 to 2023 using Grant money from National Lottery Heritage Fund, Cadw, WCVA and Magic Little Grants. The main assets include 3D Scanning models, laptop and tablet, excavation equipment, a camcorder and projector. They are currently held by Trustees or in our Exhibition Room at Home Farm, Abbeycwmhir. - During 2023/24 we have added three items to the assets of the Trust 1. Removable harddrive to store our Archived material £39.15 2. Jabra Speak 2 55 Wireless Bluetooth Speakerphone (paid for by CADW grant) £99.99 3. People Counter sited in the Exhibition Room to measure visitors (paid for by Levelling Up grant) £207.00 4. A full list of assets can be made available by request. ## **Subscriptions to other bodies** The Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust are members of: - The Radnorshire Society - Council for British Archeology (CBA) - British Association for Local History (BALH - membership also includes Public Liability Insurance) ## **Grants Received during this period** The Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust have been fortunate to receive grants from: - Catalyst Cymru Grant £960 - training for Archiving - Fully spent during this financial year - Levelling Up Grant 2024 - approved March 2024 with 80% due in April 2024 and balance due at the end of the grant November 2024. ## **Membership Report** Current Membership Fees £15 Single £20 Family. These fees haven’t increased for some years. 6 ## **Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2023 - 31 March 2024** We are pleased to welcome the following new members in this financial year: Jill Wiley and Christine Walmsley. Our numbers are as follows year on year counting joint membership as 2. |No of Members as at 1 April 2024|38| |---|---| |No of Members as at 31 March 2024 (including 2 new members)|38| ## **Risks and Mitigation** The two main risks that the Trust faces continue to be: |**Risk**|**Mitigation**| |---|---| |Insufficient
Trustees
to
progress
the
activities of the Trust|Encourage new and diverse Trustees by an
active recruitment process| |Protection of Data|We have already taken steps to hold much
of our data on Google Drive. The Trust has
received training this financial year to learn
how best to archive our Heritage Research.
This is ongoing and will take time to ensure
we have captured everything.| ## **Structure, Governance and Management** Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) with voting members other than its charity trustees. Trustee selection methods, including details of any constitutional provisions e.g. election to post or name of any person or body entitled to appoint one or more trustees, can be found in our Constitution. Our Constitution and our Policies can be found on our website: https://abbeycwmhir.org/uncategorized/policies-and-procedures 7 **Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 April 2023 - 31 March 2024** ## **DECLARATIONS** This report has been prepared, on behalf of the Trustees, by Mel Walters and Jackie Marriott using the guidance set out by the Charities Commission Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP). The Trustees declare they have approved the Trustees’ Report above. Signed on behalf of the Trustees Julian Lovell Secretary Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust 8 Final Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Twst- Summary 31 Marth 2024 Summary Credit Doblt INCOME: AGM £35.00 £288.69 £506.17 Donations Grft Aid Grants awarded.. Catalyst Cymru Intfyr8St Membership Online Talks and Excavation Sundry TOTAL INCOME: EXPENDrruRE: AGM Assets Events Exhibition Room Grant expenditure: Cat31yst Cyrnru Levelling Up Fund Insuran Online Resources Postsge, Stationery & Prinb"ng Reseèrch Expertdrture Subscriptions Sundry £960.00 £64.05 £370.00 £986.90 £39.15 £3,249.96 -£117.58 39.15 -£37.44 -£65.50 -£971.99 -£207.00 -£274.66 -£289.45 -£31.34 -£1.165.29 -£47.50 -£124.25 3,371.15 NET INCOMEEXPENDITURE: 121.19 FINANCIALASSETS: Lloyds BankAccount Ck)sing Balan Lloyds D8POSit Ac(xxJnt Ch)sirvJ Balanc8 Petty Cash Clwng Batance £4.306.90 £6.07728 £76.47 £10.460.65 REPRESENTED BY Reserve5 brought forward at 01104r2023 Lloyds Bank Acry)unt Lloyds DepwtAccount Petty Cash Net Incom8lExKRrMlilure £4,352.19 £6,013_23 £216.42 -£121.19 £10,460.65 1410412024 Final Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust- Summary 31 Mar(* 2024 Summary NOTES.. Evidtrne• in Files= Uoyds Trèasurerfs Ac(KKJnl- Bank Statements and Print ujt of AHT rK4yds Uoyds DepN)sitAco)unt- Online Statement and Prinl c*Jt ofAHT reccwds Membership Eventbrite/SiEntries Online Events- Under r&*rpts Accounting Policies= The incotne and e¥perKlthre *xourts have c(wrfvJ ￿lpts ar¥J al bat accounts and pety cash. Ja￿& Marritstt T[eaSu￿rI Twstee Dat8.. Audltorfs Report I have fA)nducted an examinatKJn. a test bays. of the evide1￿ relev3nt to the 3￿j disck)5ures in the finanoal statements gN8n atmwe. In my Ihese statements give a true aThl fair wew ofthe Trusvs affairs as at 3151 Uarth 2024. a5 5ukwW by bank slalwn￿ts atKI otherevNJence provided. Fr￿￿que AL¥Jitor Date". 1410412024